image expired

Syngenta filed the lawsuit against Bunge in the U.S. District Court in Iowa after Bunge notified customers that it would not accept Syngenta's new corn, Agrisure Viptera, which was approved by the USDA last year.

Syngenta alleged Bunge has singled out its corn, as well as a DuPont-owned soybean variety, stating it does not have the necessary international approval from major export destinations and therefore cannot accept them. Although Syngenta has approval for destinations including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan and Mexico it does not for China, an increasingly lucrative market.

Soren Schroder, Bunge's North America division chief executive, commented that he was "surprised and disappointed" at Syngenta’s actions. He reiterated that contamination from the new grains to Bunge’s crop handling chain would "put at risk a major export market for US corn producers – China."

Bunge said in a statement, "Our obligation to our farmers is to provide access to the global marketplace and the price benefits of that access. Syngenta's decision to commercialize Agrisure Viptera should not foreclose our ability to sell to a major market."